My One Word for 2016–Rest

As 2015 was drawing to an end, I frequently heard people comment something along the lines of, “I am so glad for this year to be over. It was not a good one.” Many of them had experienced great losses and difficult trials during 2015. That was not true for me, yet I was very glad for the year to end, as it had been challenging and exhausting.

2015 began with the anticipation of two new granddaughters. Their arrivals in the early part of the year filled us with joy, and we are truly blessed to welcome these new additions into our family. Babies, however, are a lot of work. As grandparents, we have tried to help our children during this busy time, primarily by taking care of the three older siblings who are all preschoolers.

We moved forward with a long awaited plan to build-out our unfinished basment. It was a great idea and it turned out as we had hoped. However, it required that the basement be emptied of all the things we had been storing in it. We spent a few weeks sorting through everything and determining what to keep, what to take to Goodwill, and what to throw away before we could begin the actual work of finishing the space.

My already busy workload increased when a co-worker left but was not immediately replaced. To keep up, I worked through lunch most days and stayed late. I had to keep reminding myself to slow down a bit and breathe as I hurried from one meeting to the next.

Added into the mix were health challenges faced by our three parents who are in their 80’s. We helped out as much as we could in getting them to doctors’ appointment, including six weeks of daily radiation treatments for my mother-in-law during the holiday season.

So when it came time to think about One Word to focus on during 2016, I choose REST. This was confirmed when I read that our women’s ministries had chosen ‘Selah–Rest in the Lord’ as our annual theme. The theme verse is “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30, NIV)

Resting in the Lord doesn’t mean that I drop out of life and do nothing. It doesn’t require me to ignore responsibilities and the challenges of life. It does mean, however, that I lay my burdens on Jesus Christ. I need to look to him as my source of strength each day. He will never bring more demands into my life than I can handle with Him carrying the burden.

I look forward to a joyfully busy and productive year as I start each day with time in God’s Word and lean on Jesus to help me accomplish the tasks He sets before me.